Swansea City Beat Celtic 2-0 In Friendly

Brendan Rodgers' side got off to a good start in the first of two home friendly matches this week as goals from Angel Rangel and Stephen Dobbie in the second half gave Swansea City a 2-0 win against Celtic.

The Scottish Premier League side provided a good test for the Swans as they've already started their season, beating Hibernian 2-0 away 10 days ago.

With tickets priced high at £25, a big crowd wasn't expected but the visitors made themselves heard throughout while the Jacks made more noise after Rangel opened the scoring after 64 minutes.

Rodgers named a strong line-up, one that won't be too dissimilar to the one that travels to Manchester City on Monday 15th August.

German trialist Gerhard Tremmel started in between the sticks as manager Brendan Rodgers takes another look to see if he's worth signing on a permanent basis. In front of him saw a central defensive partnership of Ashley Williams and Tottenham Hotspur loanee Steven Caulker, with captain Alan Tate and Angel Rangel as full backs.

The midfield saw one change from the usual 5. Kemy Agustien started alongside Joe Allen and Leon Britton. New £3.5m record signing Danny Graham started up front.

There were few chances to report on in the opening quarter of an hour as most of the play was in the middle third, with decent passing from both sides but neither looking like taking an early lead.

Tremmel was the first of the two goalkeepers to be tested, as Commons fired at goal from 25 yards but the trialist did well to palm his effort over the bar for a corner.

Scott Sinclair had Swansea's first break through the defence thanks to a good pass from Kemy Agustien, but the winger took a touch too many and the goalkeeper denied him a decent shooting chance.

Whilst Celtic probably had more possession, the Swans started to create more clear chances. Firstly, Nathan Dyer went on an excellent run down the right before a low shot went out for a corner. Danny Graham also went close before the break when his header hit the side netting at the far post.

Both sides made just one change for the restart. The Swans changed goalkeepers with Moreira replacing Tremmel, and Celtic's Wanyama came on for Majstorovic.

Celtic continued to shoot wide of the target as Moreira had little to do early in the second half, as the Swans got closer to scoring and they did. Scott Sinclair's rather average free-kick was only parried by the visitor's goalkeeper, and Angel Rangel was well placed to find the net with the rebound.

Brendan Rodgers then made further changes, bringing on Taylor, Gower and Dobbie who replaced Tate, Britton and Allen.

Dyer had a shot saved again, and at the other end, Celtic found the net but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Dobbie didn't take long to make an impact after he came on as he doubled our lead. Gower found the Scot, and he drilled the ball home with just 5 minutes left on the clock.

New signing Leroy Lita also came on late in the game, along with Luke Moore, Andrea Orlandi and Craig Beattie.

Lita was involved late on as he raced on Moore's pass, he was brought down inside the box but the referee ignored shouts for a spot-kick.

It might have been Celtic's second team, but it was a good run-out for the team and I'm sure Brendan Rodgers will find plenty of positives from the performance, the fact we scored two goals and also kept a clean sheet.